Stephen King and son team up for a beauty of a horror tale

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The first epic collaboration between Stephen King and son Owen King is ambitious, heartbreaking and, when it comes to its central horrors, all too timely.

Their novel Sleeping Beauties (Scribner, 720 pp., ***½ out of four stars) is part enchanting fable and part cautionary tale, positing this "what if?" notion: What if all the women in the world were to nod off to sleep and not wake up?

As you can probably guess, an increasingly all-male Earth is not a great thing, and Sleeping Beauties roars with a sense of fiery violence and righteous fury. While the book's quasi-apocalyptic scenario offers a wide variety of heroes and villains, both male and female, it maintains an unbreakable sense of empathy amid the crazy supernatural (and man-made) shenanigans that tear apart an Appalachian community.

The first half of the massive Beauties is chock-full of slow-burn exposition — it's sometimes a little too sluggish, with more than 70 characters in its dramatis personae, including a talking fox.

Author Stephen King.(Photo: Shane Leonard)

The small West Virginia town of Dooling is struggling even before the outbreak of a sleeping disease known as Aurora (named after the snoozing Sleeping Beauty princess): Drug abuse, crime, sexism and a not-so-neighborly undercurrent plague this bit of coal country. It all simmers beneath the surface until an enigmatic woman named Eve Black inexplicably shows up and leaves her bloody mark on some unlucky meth junkies.

Lila Norcross is the town’s embattled female chief of police who takes Eve into custody. Lila remands Eve to Clint, Lila's husband and a psychiatrist with a good soul but a hard upbringing who works at the local women’s prison.

The inmates as well as the ladies around town start to fall asleep, becoming enveloped in a cocoon composed of a sticky organic substance of unknown origin. Waking them up is a bad idea — doing so launches the victim into a vicious assault on anybody nearby.

Owen King has teamed up on 'Sleeping Beauties' with his dad, Stephen King.(Photo: Danielle Lurie)

Eve, who quotes Shakespeare and is addicted to smartphone games, flummoxes Clint and others when they discover that the Aurora disease doesn’t affect her — not only can she emerge from a dream state, she seems to be the key to fixing the situation. She becomes a target for a group of men in town, and Clint becomes “the Man” in charge of her safety.

Beauties melds the elder King’s talent for exploring the darker sides of human nature when people are thrust into terrifying situations with his youngest son’s gift for juggling multiple genres and complex characters. The final chapters bring all their skills together in a fast-paced, explosive finale and emotional aftermath.

The Kings create a thought-provoking work that examines a litany of modern-day issues. Toxic masculinity, police brutality and fake news all find their way into the narrative. Yet just as important are the intimate conversations between jailed lovers trying to stay awake, a couple navigating their imploding marriage, and the arc of an ordinary dog catcher and devoted father who ends up the leader of a dangerous movement.

Gender politics obviously fuel a lot of the divisiveness, and the Kings are clear in pointing out pretty much every male fallacy other than not asking for directions. “He said, she said,” Eve says in one of her cryptic conversations. “The oldest story in the universe.”

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Happy birthday, Stephen King. The author and horror master turns 70 on Sept. 21, and in honor of this milestone birthday, we take a look at 70 images of his life and myriad works. Allison V. Smith, for USA TODAY

King, right, is joined by his wife, Tabitha, at the New York premier of the movie, 'The Green Mile.' The couple wed in January 1971 and have three children: Naomi Rachel, Joe Hill and Owen Phillip. Marion Curtis/AP

The author made a rare public appearance in 2008, at the University of South Florida's, Sarasota campus. King introduced author Lauren Groff, right, a Gainesville, Fla. resident, who spoke about her book, 'Monsters of Templeton,' with King. Rod Millington/AP

Author Stephen King, left, plays guitar as fellow writer Mitch Albom, wearing an Elvis hairdo, sings with the band Rock Bottom Remainders at a benefit performance in Boston on Nov. 16, 2000. The band's members are mostly writers and also has included Amy Tan, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Michael Dwyer/AP

John Mellencamp (center), Stephen King (right) and T-Bone Burnett (left) opted for a novel approach to getting their new musical more exposure. They took the show, 'Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,' on the road -- as a concert in 2014. Kevin Mazur

The author is a huge baseball fan, particularly of the Boston Red Sox. Here he watches Game 3 of the American League division series between the Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels in Boston on Oct. 5, 2008. Charles Krupa/AP

King holds a baseball Sunday, Aug. 11, 2002, before throwing the ceremonial first pitch at the opening game of the Senior League Baseball World Series in Bangor, Maine, as his wife Tabitha, left, watches. The Kings donated considerable amounts of money to the construction of Mansfield Stadium in their hometown. Michael C. York/AP

Authors Stewart O'Nan, in Pirates jersey, and Stephen King, Red Sox jersey, attend a game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The two teamed up to write a book entitled 'Faithful' on a year spent rooting for the then-hapless Red Sox. Leo Sorel

Stephen King lends his name to many causes. Seen here on the red carpet at a film premiere, March 19, 2003, the author, along with Amy Tan, Lemony Snicket, Nora Roberts, Michael Chabon and 11 other best-selling writers auctioned the right to name characters in their new novels on an Internet auction on eBay. The profits went to the First Amendment Project, whose lawyers have gone to court to protect the free speech rights of activists, writers and artists. Rene Macura/AP

Stephen King speaks at rally for Independent gubernatorial candidate Angus King, left, in the author's hometown of Bangor, Maine, on Nov. 5, 1994. Stephen King, who generally supports Democrats, said he was endorsing the Independent candidate in part because he was dissatisfied with Democratic candidate Joe Brennan. Robert F. Bukaty/AP

King retaliated against President Donald Trump for blocking him on Twitter. In a post late Thursday, Aug. 24, the author said he would block Trump from seeing the upcoming movie "It" or the currently showing television series "Mr. Mercedes," both based on his books. King's tweet says "No clowns for you, Donald. Go float yourself." Mark Lennihan/AP

Stephen King, left, joined by Gov. John Baldacci, right, served spaghetti on Sept. 12, 2005 in Augusta, Maine, during a spaghetti supper to raise money for the American Red Cross effort to assist Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Joel Page/AP

Seventh-grader Felicia Wentworth shows work on her laptop to Stephen King on Nov. 12, 2002, at the Freeport Middle School in Freeport, Maine. King said he wanted to teach writing to students via computer technology next year. Robert F. Bukaty/AP

Horror author Stephen King holds up a pamphlet showing him during a demonstration on campus back in 1970 as he participated in a conference honoring him at the University of Maine in Orono campus on Oct. 3, 2001. A panel of former classmates talked about a life of activism during the Vietnam War. Pat Wellenbach/AP

King laughs during a press conference Aug 1, 2006, in New York. King and fellow authors J.K. Rowling and John Irving appeared together on Aug. 1 and 2 to read from their books as a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders and The Haven Foundation. Seth Wenig/AP

King answers questions about his rock and roll band, which is composed of famous authors, during a news conference Nov. 14, 2000 in Denver, Colo. His band, Rock Bottom Remainders, offered the proceeds from its show to Denver Scores, a nonprofit after-school program that provides writing and soccer instruction to public elementary school students. Kevin Higley/AP

King has had a tremendous amount of his work adapted for television and film. Here the author is photographed in the 6th Floor Museum near the location where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shots that killed President John F. Kennedy. King's novel '11/22/63' is about a man who goes back in time hoping to stop the assassination. Allison V. Smith, for USA TODAY

Gary Sinise is Stu Redman and Molly Ringwald is Franny Goldsmith, two survivors of a deadly flu epidemic who join together to try to find a better world after most of the earth's population has been killed, in Stephen King's 'The Stand.' Sharon M. Beard/ABC

Silas Weir Mitchell (L) plays a menacing hitchhiker and Raphael Sbarge (R), plays a traveling salesman who picks him up on a lonely desert highway in a dramatization of Stephen King's short story 'Chattery Teeth,' one of the segments in 'Quicksilver Highway.' Larry Watson/FOX